CELSI hosted today the Bratislava online workshop titled Close the gender pay gap in the public services in the context of austerity. Researchers from the CREW United Kingdom and ADAPT Italy, together with other 20 attendees, joined the workshop. Eight organisational cases studies have been presented covering the Central European countries such as Poland, Romania, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia. Cases provided evidence of succesful and less successful strategies of the trade unions addressing the low wages in the women-dominated public sectors. The austerity measures in the aftermath of the 2007 economic crisis - pay freezes, job cuts, outsourcing of care work and recruitment freezes, had a disproportionate impact on women. The progression and formal equal opportunity measures for women have been stalled. Will the history repeat in the context of the upcoming economic downturn due to the COV19 pandemic?